Heidi
by Technician Fan
Summary: Laura has to leave Evan to go back to Earth and work there. Two years later, he sees her again... but this time with a child. What has happened that he doesn't know about? ONE-SHOT! rated T to be safe


Heidi

By Technician Fan

Disclaimer: I don't own anything, sadly.

A/N: This story takes place around the episode REUNION in the fourth season. Lorne and Cadman have been dating for the past five months. There's a very little spoil alert for ENEMY AT THE GATE. And anything in italics is from the book that's mentioned.

Lorne's POV:

Our dinner went by with barely any talk, which was unusual. Normally I couldn't get her to shut up. Laura was hiding something from me, but I didn't know what.

We walked up to her quarters and she slid her doors open. I needed to find out what she was hiding from me. She turned around, facing me from the inside, and was about to say good-bye when I blurted out, "Can I use your bathroom before I go?" She looked slightly startled, but invited me in. I didn't really need to go, but whatever.

I walked over to her bathroom, stepping in and closing the door behind me. When I turned back around I was shocked to see that the counter space around her sink was completely cleared off. That was weird. I quickly went to the bathroom and walked back out. She was sitting on her bed with her legs crossed in front of her. She didn't look up.

I decided to just come out and ask her. "Laura, is there something you're not telling me?" I sat down next to her on her bed.

She didn't meet my eyes. "Maybe. Why do you ask?"

"Because you're not acting like yourself. You haven't really said anything tonight, your stuff all seems packed up… what's going on?"

She sighed and finally looked at me. "Colonel Carter told me that I'm being called back to Earth to help with something."

"That's it? I'll just see you when you get back then."

Her eyes started to sparkle with unshed tears. "That's just it, Evan. I'm not coming back."

I felt my face drop. "What?" I asked.

"They said that I'm more useful there than I am here, so they're shipping me back and giving me a place to work there."

"They didn't give you any say in this?"

She shook her head. "I tried to talk them out of it, I really did." she sniffed and gave a little choke, looking down again. I hugged her head to my chest. I'd never seen her break down like she was. I never knew that she was even capable of it, because she never cried in front of me.

"I believe you."

She gave a little sob and looked back up at me. "What are we going to do? About us? What about us?"

"I don't know." I held her for a few more minutes. "Well this sucks."

She gave a shaky laugh. "I know." She looked up at me and looked into my eyes a little bit. "Can we go to your quarters? I think I left something there."

"Sure," I replied, standing up. She stood up with me and we walked hand in hand out of there. WE got a few glances as we walked down the hall towards my quarters, which weren't too far from hers, but neither of us cared.

She looked around for whatever it was that she lost. She finally found it under my bed; it was a book that she left her by mistake one time: Heidi by Johanna Spyri. Laura looked at the book for a few seconds before holding it out towards me.

"Here," she said. "Keep it as a memory of me."

I took it from her and stared at it without actually seeing it. I closed my eyes and looked down, fighting back tears that were trying to force their way through.

She saw my face break slightly. "Evan?" She reached out for me, putting her hand on my shoulder.

"I'm fine, really," I said. I took a deep breath and looked up at her, into her eyes. We sat there, gazing at each other. I leaned forward and kissed her like I've never kissed her before. She seemed startled at first, but quickly got engulfed In it. I pushed her back down onto my bed, threw the book to the ground, and forgot about everything except Laura and me, right here, and right now.

_**The Next Morning:**_

I awoke the next morning with my back feeling like it was slightly on fire from the sun shining in. As I stretched, my arm fell across a piece of paper. I picked it up and saw that it was addressed to me, in Laura's handwriting. All the memories from last night suddenly came back to me; the excitement, the passion, and most of all, Laura.

_Dear Evan,_

_I'm sorry I couldn't stay a little bit longer. Colonel Carter called me to the control room early this morning. I don't regret last night, and I hope you don't either. It was one of the best nights of my life. I'm going to miss you, Evan, I really am. I'll try and keep in touch with you._

_Sincerely,_

_Laura ;)_

I read the letter over and over, thinking about Laura. I would've kept on reading it had Colonel Sheppard not radioed at that moment and called me up for a briefing.

"Major," The colonel greeted me as I walked into the briefing room. "You look like hell."

I tried to give my best smile. "Hard night, that's all." Not a bad night, though…

The way he looked at me made it see like he was peering into my soul or something. Or maybe I had the worst poker face and he knew that something happened. Or not.

"Right, well we've all had those kind of days," He said. "Just get plenty of rest tonight and don't do anything to stressful." Crap, he did know. "I don't need one of my men to be falling asleep while watching the gate tomorrow on P27-1296." Or not.

"Yeah, I'll be sure to rest up." I said before he could reply, Carter walked in and the briefing began.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

That night, I was getting ready to go to bed when I saw the book _Heidi_ lying on my bedside table. Laura must've picked it up off the floor where I had tossed it last night as she got ready to leave. I climbed into bed, grabbing the book and started to read.

_Chapter One: The Journey up the Mountain… The Swiss town of Mayenfield lies at the foot of a mountain range whose rugged peaks tower high above the valley below. Behind the town a footpath winds gently up the mountain._

_One sunny June morning, a tall, strong woman was climbing up the path. She had a bundle in one hand and held a little girl about five years old in the other hand. The child's cheeks were flushed and sunburned, and she was wearing two dresses, one on top of the other. She looked like a shapeless bundle of clothing trudging uphill in a pair of shoes._

I read page after page of _Heidi_ until about midnight, when I finally had to go to bed.

The next day, after we got back from our short mission, I came back to my quarters. I still had an hour before the debriefing, so I took a quick shower and read a bit more of the classic book.

After my debriefing, Colonel Sheppard invited me to lunch with Teyla, Ronon, and him in an hour, but declined his offer, saying I had more important things to do. He sighed and said that if I ever wanted to join them for lunch, just call him.

I went back to my quarters with a snack and settled into my bed with the book, reading more. It was just a few minutes into it that I came across a very interesting part where the doctor from the city was talking to Heidi.

_She sat down beside the doctor and asked him if he thought the home as beautiful as she herself did._

"_Yes, Heidi, it's very beautiful here," he agreed, "but can a heart forget its sorrow and be happy even here?"_

"_No one is sad here, not when there is so much beauty and so much love. Stay with us for a little while and you'll see." she said._

_The doctor was touched by Heidi's words. _

I was touched by her words. She had a point, that little Heidi did. It made me think of my own life. Atlantis was a place of beauty and not a lot of people (except for maybe Kavanaugh when he was here) loved it. But can I forget my sorrow for Laura leaving and be happy here? I think I can. And to start, I think I'll take Colonel Sheppard up on his offer for lunch.

**_Two Years Later:_**

I walked down to the East Pier where a navy ship was waiting to take some of us over to the actual land of San Francisco. We'd been back on Earth for just a couple of days now and already it seemed like forever. I wasn't going to do much at first; just visit my nephews and other relatives for a couple of days. Then Colonel Sheppard reminded me about Laura. I'd decided to call her up and see where she was. The Air Force had contacted her for me and we'd decided to meet up today at where the ship would dock.

I walked onto the ship and as soon as everyone else was on, we headed out to the mainland. A breeze came by and I could smell the tang of salt. It smelt similar to the planets that Atlantis had been on.

As I slowly walked off the ship when we arrived at our destination, I immediately saw Laura. Her hair was longer, but that seemed like the only thing that was different. She spotted me and waved. I waved back to her.

I jogged up to her and noticed that she wasn't alone. Right next to her was a little boy, about two years old by the looks of it, with the same hair color as her. My heart fell, thinking that she had found someone else after all this time.

I greeted her with a little bit of a different attitude than I had first intended. "Laura, hi. How's it going?"

She smiled her usual ear to ear grin. God, how I missed that. "I'm great, you?"

"Fine," I replied. I gave a quick glance down at the little boy, hoping she'd notice.

Thankfully, she did. "Oh, um, Evan, this is Gabriel."

I nodded my head in acknowledgement. "Okay. Look, I understand, it's been a few years. I should've known that you'd move on--"

"No, Evan, you didn't let me finish," she interrupted. "This is Gabriel Evan Lorne." I looked at her with shock in my eyes. "Evan, meet your son."

My mouth dropped open, making her let out a slightly nervous giggle. "Whoa, whoa, whoa… are you… this can't be… I…."

"He is, Evan," she said quietly.

"But it's been two years! He can't be…" I trailed off, doing the math. It had been two years since she left, since that night, and this kid looked about two years old.

"It's the truth, Evan. He was born nine and a half months after I left Atlantis."

I was speechless for a few minutes. She waited patiently, knowing this was a lot to take in. I finally spoke up. "This is so weird. I've been a father for two years without even knowing it."

"I understand," she said, sighing. "I was pretty freaked out at first, too. But now I've come to realize that I've always wanted a kid. And when I found out about Gabriel, I was scared. You weren't here, you couldn't help me through this like normal couples."

"We're not exactly a normal couple, Laura. We travel through a big ring to other worlds, other galaxies, even! It's not on the every-day agenda for most people."

She laughed, another thing that I had missed so much. Then I realized something else. "Wait, so his name is Gabriel Evan Lorne?"

She nodded. "Yeah, Gabriel after my father and Evan after you. Why do you ask?"

"Our son's initials are GEL?"

"I know, isn't it cute?"

"He's gonna be a prima donna! He'll care more about his hair than sports! Every week we'll have to buy him new hair supplies! Oh, dear lord, do you know what you've done to this poor kid? He'll be humiliated to death at school! All the kids will make fun of him. He'll have to go into hiding. We'll have to move across the country and find a new place to live, with new names--"

"Evan," she said in an annoyed yet amused tone. I stopped talking. "He's gonna be fine. He loves playing sports already."

"Really?"

"Really. I took him over last weekend to Colonel Mitchell and Dr. Lam's place. Cam had a great time teaching him how to catch and throw a baseball. And about a month ago, General O'Neill was teaching him how to fish up at his cabin. He's gonna be fine, Evan."

"So he knows how to play baseball, sort of, and fish?" She nodded. "But I wanted to teach him how to do that stuff!"

"Well, you snooze, you lose!"

"I was in a different galaxy doing my job! There wasn't exactly a 'get out of jail free' card I could use. If I had a choice, or more importantly if I had known, then yes, I would've come back here to help raise him and to teach him how to play games." I paused for a minute. "Does he know how to play football?"

"Not yet. Cam and Jack wanted to teach him how, but I said that you might want to teach him at least one sport.

"Thank you," I said.

"You're welcome," she replied, stepping over and hailing a taxi.

We got into the taxi and Laura gave them the address to the airport. On the ride over, Laura and I talked about what we'd been doing for the past two years. Gabriel piped up a couple of words every now and then. He was really starting to warm up to me, even though he hadn't known me for the first two years of his life. I also noticed that his eyes were perfect replicas of mine.

At the airport, we boarded a private plane that headed to General O'Neill's cabin, courtesy of the general himself. Laura fell asleep, so I talked to Gabriel a bit about his favorite things that he did. Turns out that he hasn't been so sad about not knowing me; he had General O'Neill, Colonel Mitchell, Daniel Jackson, and Teal'c to have male bonding with.

As we got off the plane and into yet another car that headed for the cabin, I fell asleep. I was woken up later by Gabriel as he started yelling. "Daddy, wake up! Daddy, wake up!" I woke up and he jumped out of the car. I got out, closing the door, and ran after him, trying to catch him. He started screaming and running around. When I finally caught him, I started tickling him while holding him upside down. He laughed as I did so. When I stopped, I held him upright and put my forehead to his. He gave a small giggle and blew me a raspberry in my face.

I hoisted him over my shoulder and headed into the cabin where Laura already was. When I entered the room, I found out that we weren't the only ones there. O'Neill, Mitchell, Lam, Carter, Daniel, Vala, and Teal'c were there as well. They all smiled as I entered with Gabriel over my shoulder. I set him down and he ran over to jump on O'Neill's lap.

O'Neill have an "oof" as he landed on him. "Ohh, I'm getting to old for this." He jiggled Gabriel on his knee.

All of us talked and talked for quite a while. Finally, one by one, they all left the room, leaving Laura and me alone; Lam and Mitchell went to go help Gabriel go to the bathroom, since apparently he was starting to get potty trained; Teal'c, Daniel, and Vala went to go raid the fridge for food; and Carter and O'Neill excused themselves to go for a quick walk around the pond.

I sat beside Laura on the couch and she leaned herself up against me. We didn't talk, just sat there.

"I'm going to go check if they found anything in the kitchen that's edible," she said suddenly, getting up.

"Laura, wait," I said, getting up as well. I knew that I was taking a big chance at doing what I was about to do, but I figured that since we had a kid and all, I might as well. I got down on one knee. Her eyes opened up wide and her mouth fell open as she realized what I was about to do. "I don't have a fancy ring or anything, but I hope that won't make a difference. Laura, I love you with all my heart and I want to live the rest of my life with you and Gabriel. Will you marry me?"

She seemed to be unable to speak, only nodding her head. I got up and gave her a hug, which must've unfrozen her. She squealed and wrapped her legs around my waist, practically choking me with her arms.

"I'm guessing he popped the question and she said yes," Mitchell said as he walked into the room with Gabriel in his arms, Lam right beside him.

"Indeed, Colonel Mitchell," Teal'c said as he entered from the kitchen with Vala and Daniel in tow.

The door opened and Carter and O'Neil walked in. "We heard a loud squeal from in here," O'Neill said. "Did he ask."

"Yes, I did," I said, annoyed slightly, but happy. Laura let go of me and gave me a passionate kiss. There were a couple of cat calls and wolf whistles, presumably form O'Neill, Vala, and Mitchell. I broke off the kiss to see that Lam had her hand over Gabriel's eyes.

"This is supposed to be a G rated room," she said in a humorous voice, a smile breaking her slightly stoic face in amusement. We all laughed.

I didn't care, though. I was happier than I had ever been. I had a beautiful fiance', a wonderful kid, great friends… what more could a man want? And, in a way, it all started with Heidi.

_ Then everyone stood in the hut and shared a very special moment of happiness, love and friendship that none of them would ever forget. _

A/N: So, did you like it? Leave a review and I'll know! I hope you did! Anyway, thanks for reading!


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